Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the familyKnight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Science
Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the family
Knight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Sex (Biology); Sex (Psychology); Taboo; Women
Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to
exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in
cattle--though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in
some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from
birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type
when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when
the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is
not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after
puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and
female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes
necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is _infantile_, not
female.[23]
The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If
desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects;
but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is
simply arrested and remains infantile--incomplete. Only in 1878 was the
practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices
for the Sistine Choir discontinued.
Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile
condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place
very young. [24] From his clinical experience, Dr Bell [2, p.160]
concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an
adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must
be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic
system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce
masculinity--potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the
suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal."
What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell
Andrews' patient: photographs[2, plate opposite p.243] show a rounded
bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ--the female sex
characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect.
Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male.
Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations
cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear
children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This
does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as
men _more male_ or masculine than others--some we classify as women
_more feminine_ than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic
basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more
masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much
we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains
thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types _urnings_--modern
biology knows them as "intersexes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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